Dave Newsham hoping to avoid repeat performances as BTCC moves on to Croft

DAVE Newsham is hoping to avoid a repeat of his Oulton Park performance when he takes his British Touring Car campaign to Croft tomorrow.

A poor qualifying session left Newsham outside the top 20 last month, a position he struggled to recover from.

Adjustments to the BTC Norlin Racing Chevrolet Cruze’s suspension left Newsham struggling to control the car, putting him outside the top 20 in qualifying.

He clawed his way gradually up the field, eventually finishing in 13th in race three to eke out some points for the team.

The campaign now reaches its mid-way stage at the North Yorkshire course, which has been a big learning curve for the Inverness racer and his new team.

“I hope we learn from where we were at Oulton Park. We were knocking on the door of the top 10 before that; we went there and were closer to the top 20,” said Newsham. “Hopefully we’ve learned from that and can have a car in the top 10.

“There’s then a chance of getting a reverse grid and on the podium. That has to be the aim.”

Dave Newsham is in seventh in the independents' championship. Pictures: Jay Adair.

The Norscott Vending managing director expressed his frustration last week at how the season had gone so far.

Newsham sits seventh in the independents’ championship and 16th overall. His team-mate Chris Smiley has found the going even tougher, occupying 15th place in the indies and 27th in the combined standings.

Tom Ingram is running away with the independents’ title and has a chance of snatching the drivers’ championship too.

After this weekend’s sixth round at Croft, BTCC will take a seven-week summer break, before resuming hostilities at Snetterton at the end of July.

Newsham’s best result at Croft came in 2013, when he took fifth place in race three.

“There’s some very fast corners where you need a lot of courage and some twistier bits that you need to think about. You need a car that can cope with both parts.

“The surface is very abrasive, so having a car that looks after its tyres is very important. It’s quite difficult to overtake but I’ve had some good results there. I enjoy the track and hopefully will be flying, enough for us to get into the top 10.”